


Spring means hope

by GemmaRose



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Gen, seasons au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-19
Updated: 2013-07-19
Packaged: 2017-12-20 17:53:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/890133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During her years in the tower, Rapunzel had an imaginary friend.<br/>Centuries later, now a spirit of Spring, her brother Jack introduces her to his new friends, the Guardians.<br/>Turns out, her imaginary friend wasn't so imaginary after all.</p><p>de-anon from rotg-kink</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Jack flashed a wide smile at the Guardians, making sure they were all seated. If his lucky streak held, this would go off more or less without a hitch. "So, I know I've only been a Guardian for a few months, but..." four pairs of eyes locked on him, listening attentively. He swallowed nervously. "Uh, well, I figured-"

The door banged open, causing Tooth to take to the air and Bunny to jump nearly a foot off his seat on the couch. "What he means is, we demanded to be introduced to his new friends."

Jack winced at his eldest sister's words, turning on his heel to look balefully at her. "Meri, you couldn't wait til I came to get you?"

"Nope." the redhead responded simply, looking over the assembled Guardians. Sandy waved cheerily.

"Merida, I wanted to kick in the door this time." Hiccup groused, trailing in behind her with Toothless, as always, following him like an overgrown puppy.

Jack nodded to his brother, then turned back to the stunned Guardians. "I'd like you to meet my family, Summer and Fall. Summer's the one with the perpetual bed-head, and Fall's the one with the kickass dragon." he gestured with a smile. A warm breeze curled through the door and tugged gently at Jack's hood, making him laugh lightly. "And here Spring comes now." he grinned at his new friends. "You guys are gonna love her."

He turned around again and beamed, trotting over to give each of them a quick hug. Meri's embrace was as scorching as ever, while Hic's was comfortably cool to his chill. Punz trailed in as he froze Hiccup's riding harness and leapt away, and Jack's face lit up at the sight of his only younger sibling. "Punzie!" he cried, jumping over to her on a cool breeze. She'd woven flowers and vines into her hair, forming a vague circlet of blooms in her ankle-length golden mane. More of the colourful things were tacked around her knee-length hem and layered like a lei around her modest scoop neckline, with vines forming loosely woven sleeves for her dress. Jack smirked and blew a rime of frost over the whole thing, making her shiver violently at the cold. "You look silly with all those flowers." he remarked, flipping out of her reach with the easy grace of long practice.

"I'm Spring, you goofus!" she snapped, snapping a lock of hair at his arm. He danced out of reach with a laugh, turning to face the Guardians as he gestured at the other three teens.

"Tooth, Bunny, Sandy, North, meet my family." he turned back to face the other Seasons. "Meri, Hic, Punzie, meet the Guardians."

The Big Four nodded politely, and Jack rolled his eyes. "Hic, I bet you and North could talk for hours about designing stuff. Mer, go talk to Tooth. Punz, go talk to the Easter Kangaroo."

"I'm still not a kangaroo, mate." Bunny grumbled, crossing his arms and glaring at the boy's shoulder.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Kangaroo, rabbit, whatever. Spring, Easter, just talk about flowers or whatever."

Rapunzel rolled her eyes, but bumped her shoulder against his as she passed by, leaving a wake of warm air. Jack grinned at the conversations starting up, Tooth and Merida discussing weapons and battle tactics and North explaining how he made prototypes out of ice for every toy which came out of his Workshop. Sandy gave him a three thumbs up, and Jack glanced over at Bunny and Rapunzel. They were too far off for him to hear what they were saying, but at least the fluffy Guardian wasn't intimidating his baby sister.

\-----

Rapunzel couldn't stop smiling. "I never knew you were the Easter Bunny."

Bunny chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "Well it's not like you needed to know, right?"

She grinned wider and gave him a little shove. "If I'd known, I would've sought you out sooner."

Bunny grinned, though he was careful not to let the others see. "Ya know, I seem to remember you saying you couldn't get a haircut cuz your hair would turn brown." he flipped a strand of gold back over her shoulder. "What happened?"

Rapunzel bit her lip and looked at the floor. "I died."

Bunny's heart just about craked in two, and only his pride kept him from pulling the young spirit into a hug. The tiny girl whose Hope he'd nurtured, the child to whom he'd given a purpose, a dream. The odd little human with too much hair and not enough space, who had so utterly enchanted him when he came to hide eggs for her on her third Easter. His human, his Rapunzel child, dead? "How?"

She shivered and rubbed her arms. "Jack told me I was kidnapped for ransom, and shot trying to escape." she touched a spot just below her breasts, near the middle of her chest. "The arrow-wound is gone, but the spot is marked with a flower."

Bunny almost ditched his pride to give her a hug right then, but composed himself in time to give her just a brief pat on the shoulder. "Did all of you die?"

Rapunzel nodded. "It's part of becoming a Seasonal spirit. Most of us don't remember out deaths, even. I still have all my childhood memories, though." she grinned slyly, and Bunny recalled the first time he'd seen that glint in her eyes. It had ended with a multicoloured Pooka-shaped mark on the wall, paint all over both of them, and her learning a few words she probably shouldn't have known at the tender age of three.

Bunny chuckled and ruffled her hair, careful of the flower crown. "Well then, you know I'm always happy to help my favourite ankle biter."

She giggled. "I'm not that small anymore, Bunny."

He smiled sadly. "200 odd years is still an anklebiter where I'm from."

Rapunzel rolled her eyes and looked over at Merida, who was eyeing Bunny's boomerangs from across the room. "I think Meri wants to be rescued." she sighed. "It was nice seeing you again, though." she rested a hand on his arm, just above the jeweled brace.

Bunny nodded, resisting the impulse to bump his nose against her forehead as he'd done before leaving when she was in her tower. "Go help the sheila." he made a shooing motion with one paw. "We can catch up properly later."

Rapunzel beamed and gave Bunny a brief, tight hug. "I missed you."

He smiled and bumped his nose against the top of her head before she pulled away. "I missed you too."

She gave him an awkward little wave and turned, skipping over to where the other girls were conversing. The redhead started towards him and Bunny sighed internally, already looking forward to a proper reunion with the girl he'd met in the tower so many years ago.


	2. Chapter 2

Rapunzel stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth, turning the egg carefully to avoid leaving fingerprints. "How do you do this?" she groused, blowing a stray hair out of her face.

Bunny laughed, dabbing a spot of lilac paint on her nose. "I've been practising all sorts of art since before this planet was liveable. Give yerself a bit of time."

Rapunzel flopped back and grinned lazily at the Pooka. "It's funny, the tower seems smaller every year, but you're just as big as I remember you."

Bunny grinned and set down the egg he'd just finished, matte pink with glittery purple swirls. Not that he'd ever admit it, but he'd asked Tooth to keep her his blondie's memories sharp. "I'd think it'd be hard to forget, what with that mess we made of the wall."

Rapunzel blushed and sat back up, focusing on giving her egg an even coat of shiny green-brown. "I painted over it."

Bunny nodded once, patting her shoulder. "Ya needed the space?"

She shook her head, switching to a matte blue. "I was the year you didn't come. I thought..." she shook her head again. "I thought I'd imagined you, and Mother hated it..."

with none of her siblings or his friends around, Bunny had no compunctions about pulling the slender girl into a tight hug. "It's okay." he murmured. "It's okay."

"I'm so sorry." she mumbled into his fur. "I'm so, so sorry."

"Hush." he said sternly, holding her out so he could bop her on the nose. "All anklebiters stop believing sooner or later, even Frostbite's favourites. You just grew up, no different from anyone else."

Rapunzel sniffled, shrugging free of Bunny's gentle hold and turning back to her half-painted egg. "Sorry. It just felt, well, it felt like I betrayed you, now that I know for sure you're real."

Bunny smiled and reached over to ruffle her hair. "Hey, remember the day you found me? You were just a tiny thing, not even knee high."

Rapunzel laughed, pulling her hair back and wrapping it with a small vine. "I thought you were a giant, come to eat me."

"That was a fun game of chase. You always were a fast little bugger."

Rapunzel snorted. "I tied you up in knots before I couldn't hardly talk right."

Bunny grinned, coating an egg in spring green swirls with a single stroke. "Your lisp was the cutest thing, ya know that? Did you know, Tooth told me your teeth were some of the nicest she collected in the area those years?"

Rapunzel blushed, dipping her brush in grey and making a line of dots down the horizontal stripe of blue. "Can we not talk about me? How've you been doing?"

Bunny nodded, placing dots in the empty space on the egg. "Since I saw ya last I've been pretty busy. Keeping the garden in order, filling in unused rooms, making sure Easter goes off without a hitch."

Rapunzel grinned, setting the egg down gently in the half-full basket and picking up another one. "Sorry about Jack, by the way." she grinned, laying down a base coat of rich, shiny purple. "Meri and Hic have been telling him to leave my season alone, but he can never keep from pranking me."

Bunny snorted. "Lemme guess, slush traps and early-morning ice slicks?"

Rapunzel nodded, switching her purple for a glimmering gold and beginning the figure of a sun. "And crowns of ice-flowers in between. You just can't stay mad at him, ya know?"

Bunny chuckled, painting another egg with red on the wide end and yellow on the top, meeting with a soft orange in the middle. "I know. He's got that face..."

Rapunzel laughed, shaking her head and setting the egg emblazoned with her kingdom's sigil in the basket next to her other four. "Like a kicked dog. Merida's the only one of us who can keep him in line, ever since she lit him on fire at their first meeting."

Bunny laughed out loud as Rapunzel started painting another egg, this one in a deep blue-green. "Frostbit, on fire? I'd've thought he would melt the fire right out."

"You would think so, wouldn't you?" Rapunzel laughed, shaking her head. "No, but when the fire went out it looked like he had freezer burn."

"Freezer burn?" Bunny grinned. "That sounds unpleasant. What's it look like?"

Rapunzel smiled back. "You know how burns look, right?"

The Guardian nodded.

"Well it's nothing like that. It's like," she made a face, gesturing with her hands. "Like fur, almost, except made of ice. It hurt him when we tried to brush it off, and he wound up walking around without his hoodie for a week until it went away."

Bunny doubled over in giggles, and Rapunzel grinned fondly. "Hiccup says Jack's more of a talking fishbone than he was when he was 14. He's so scrawny, it makes his voice sound so weird. Like, you don't expect such a deep noise from somebody like that."

Bunny nodded, wiping at his eyes. "I forgot how nice it is to be around you, Punzie."

Rapunzel nodded, leaning against his arm. "Me too. You're nice to be around. I'm not sure why Jack complains about you so much."

Bunny rolled his eyes. "We don't get along. But hey, enough talk about your brother, it's time for you to get headed back up top."

Rapunzel whined and held up her half-painted egg. "Can't I finish this one?"

Bunny rolled his eyes. "Always with the five-more-minutes. You really haven't changed a bit."

Rapunzel pouted, widening her impossibly green eyes. "Please?"

Bunnymund sighed, shaking his head. "Never could say no to that face."

Rapunzel beamed and threw her arms around the Pooka's neck. "Thank you!"

"Get back ta that egg, I'm taking ya up top again when yer done." Bunny grinned, boxing her ears gently.

Rapunzel beamed and kissed his nose. "Alright. But I get to ride on your back."

Bunny rolled his eyes and ruffled her hair. "Never change, blondie."

"No promises." she smiled, going back to painting delicate frost patterns across her last egg. "Spring is about growth and change, you're the one who told me that aren't ya?."

"Yes, I am." he smiled, picking up an egg and coating it in slightly shiny gold. "Now shut up and paint yer egg. I gotta get you home before Frostbite and yer crazy sister get riled up and come bargin' in ta take ya back themselves."

Rapunzel rolled her eyes, setting down her completed egg. "Fine. I still get to ride on your back, right?"

For a moment he almost told her to fly next to him, or walk, but she looked at him hopefully and he crumbled. "Hop on, ya li'l rascal."

She clapped delightedly and hopped up, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "Thank you~" she warbled, resting her head next to his. "Hey, Bunny?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I help you with Easter next year?"

He grinned, popping up on Berk just a few dozen yards from the village edge. "Sure thing. Just make sure you're on this island or in your realm the day before."

"Will do." she grinned as she hopped off, giving him a mock salute. "See ya in a few months?"

Bunny bumped his nose against her forehead. "See ya in a few months, flower-head."

Rapunzel whapped him lightly on the arm. "I'm not a flower head."

"I know, I know." he grinned. "Bye, kid. See ya in a few months."

"See ya, Bunny." she said with a grin, giving him a kiss on the nose before flouncing off towards Hiccup's house.

The Pooka grinned and rubbed his nose, thumping his foot on the ground to open a tunnel. His little girl was all grown up.


End file.
